At the very least, he might be the second-best, but fourth is ridiculous. Fortunately, the voting process isn’t over yet and Philadelphia Phillies fans can vote for Chooch to make the All-Star team many more times before it is too late.

Ruiz still trails St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina by over 500,000 votes. Ruiz doesn’t officially qualify – just missing the marks – but if he did, his .368 batting average would rank first in the league, his .416 on-base percentage would be fourth, and his .600 slugging percentage would rank third best in the league. Ruiz is also playing perfect defense, as his 1.000 fielding percentage leads the league, and he has handled a pitching staff that ranks among the game’s best.

Ruiz is one of the more valuable catchers in the league to his team, as he has batted fourth this season with Ryan Howard rehabbing from a torn Achilles tendon and Hunter Pence struggling in the cleanup role. Ruiz trails Molina, Buster Posey, and Brian McCann in the voting.

The difference between Matt Carpenter the leadoff man and Carpenter in any other spot in the order has been huge this season. As they enter the stretch run, St. Louis should keep batting him leadoff. Read More